and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out

I am anole. I am turtle at the bottom of the tank. I am cold and not inclined to motion, at least until the dog starts bouncing off my chest wanting her walk. 

Properly bundled and outside it's not so bad, as long as the wind doesn't blow. We walk briskly, the short walk, and even she is ready to be back inside by the time we return. Cold or not, these are the days of laying low as the last week of the year ticks by.

But it is cold...overcast, drier than the past two or three days, temperatures hovering in the low 40s, the high varying only a few degrees from the low. When it changes it will get both warmer and colder, cold enough that plants will have to come in again and others covered.

2017 has worn out its welcome and it's leaving in a wintry snit dumping feet of snow on much of the country. Good riddance I say.

Politically, it started out bad with Trump's inauguration and continued downhill from there. In one short year Trump has destroyed our standing in the world, ruined our relationships with our allies, sold off our national lands, admired our enemies, insulted our free press and intelligence agencies, rescinded decades of protective regulations for workers and the environment, gave the very rich a trillion dollar ta x cut...basically, if Obama did it then he is undoing it...and cost the taxpayers $100 million for him to play golf every weekend, Nazis actually paraded through the streets of America and Trump called them good guys.

Personally, I spent far too much time in doctor's offices and endured far too many tests. An exploration of my weird choking and throat spasms which was a colossal waste of time and money with an ENT who ignored the reason I was there and just wanted to fix my broken nose and then a stress induced 2 week period of episodes of rapid heartbeat sent me to a cardiologist who never addressed the episodes of rapid heartbeat but otherwise gave me a clean bill of health, no sign of any blockage. So, yay that!

The planet continued to produce extreme weather with a tornado that peeled off the roof of the antique store so no more Saturday job, a long hot dry summer here, drought in California, direct hits on the country from three major hurricanes in a row the first of which caused half our house to flood with us being rescued by airboat, 

record breaking wildfires in the Northwest and California, and this last month we woke up to 2” of snow one morning while the Northeast, in these last few days, is being buried by the stuff.

It wasn't all bad though. We spent a week in Hawaii with our twin granddaughters Jade and Autumn, their reward for hard work, graduating with honors and scholarships, before their first year of college. 

We had no commission work this year and with Marc's birthday this past Wednesday, he will start getting SS which will boost our income enough that we have decided to retire from the etched glass purposefully. The Wren Box and the Peach Box sold. I got my studio room remodeled from ceiling to floor.

And our spring garden produced an abundance of tomatoes and potatoes which I put up in the freezer and then lost it all when the electricity went out due to the flood. 

Three more days and I'd ask what else can possibly happen except that I know better than to invoke the gods.